12:55, 23 January 2008

Human Rights Watch concerned with trial of "Voice of Beslan"

The International Human Rights Watch Organization has expressed its anxiety with the pressure exerted on the "Voice of Beslan" Organization, in whose materials the Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia has revealed extremist information.

"The first thing that comes to my mind: the pressure is politically motivated," Alexander Petrov, deputy head of the Moscow branch of Human Rights Watch, has told today.

"They want to shut up the activists who raise inconvenient problems for the authorities," Mr Petrov believes.

Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the Movement "For Human Rights", has also expressed his opinion earlier that "the attempts of accusing the 'Voice of Beslan' of extremism are groundless," the "Interfax" reports.